Even Ohtani has one: Baseball’s most one-sided rivalries

Some baseball rivalries seem decided before the first pitch. A team or player can dominate nearly everyone else, then unravel against the same opponent again and again.

These one-sided matchups often defy form and standings. Once the pattern takes hold, the contest becomes as much a mental battle as a physical one. Several such rivalries have stood out in the KBO League this season.

The LG Twins have been particularly vulnerable against the KT Wiz, going 3-9 head-to-head. LG had been locked in a tight race with the Samsung Lions for first place through the first half of the season, but a four-game sweep by KT to open the second half dropped the Twins to third. That record contrasts sharply with LG’s success against the SSG Landers, whom it has beaten eight times in nine games, and the Doosan Bears, against whom it is 7-2.

The Hanwha Eagles have found an even less likely rival in the last-place Kiwoom Heroes. Hanwha is winless in its past seven games against Kiwoom, with one draw and six losses. Hanwha and ninth-place SSG, against whom Kiwoom is 5-4, are the only teams the Heroes have a winning record against this season.

While the Kia Tigers used a perfect 9-0 mark against Kiwoom as a springboard up the standings, Hanwha repeatedly found itself in dogfights against the Heroes and slipped out of the top five. Even Hanwha ace Ryu Hyun-jin, who ranks fourth in the league with a 2.90 ERA, has struggled against Kiwoom with a 6.10 ERA.

Hanwha, however, has been the toughest opponent for Kia’s Adam Oller, one of the league’s best foreign pitchers this season. Oller has a 5.82 ERA in three games against the Eagles, compared to a dominant 1.50 ERA in four appearances against the upper-ranked Twins — a start contrast to his 2.52 ERA overall.

NC Dinos pitcher Natsuki Toda has developed an equally lopsided edge over the Lotte Giants. Despite a season ERA above 5.00, Toda is 3-0 with a 2.50 ERA in three games against Lotte. He also ended the Giants’ seven-game winning streak late last month.

Home run race rivals Austin Dean of LG and Kim Do-yeong of Kia each have an opponent they have been unable to solve. Austin, enjoying the best season of his career, has looked like a below-average hitter against Samsung pitching. In 11 games against the Lions, he is batting just .175 with one home run and three RBIs.

His lone homer against Samsung did not even come at hitter-friendly Daegu Samsung Lions Park, but at the far more spacious Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The power that produced six home runs in six games at Gocheok Sky Dome has disappeared in Daegu.

Kim has driven in 77 runs this season but has managed just four RBIs in 12 games against Doosan. He is hitless in six at-bats against second-year Bears starter Choi Min-seok, with one strikeout and two ground-ball double plays.

Many in baseball say these one-sided rivalries are often decided by the first meeting. An unlucky opening encounter can shadow a player or team for the rest of the season, and for pitchers especially, the memory of an early professional outing can shape the course of a career.

“The relative nature of these rivalries ultimately comes down to baseball being a mental game,” commentator Jeong Min-chul said. “The moment a player becomes conscious of that relationship, they can no longer perform at 100 percent. Even a pitcher who normally focuses on their own pitches starts thinking about the rival first when that hitter comes to the plate, and loses their rhythm. Then, if they give up one big hit, they become shaken and it affects every matchup after that.”

MLB’s superstars are no exception. Even Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, about as close to a superhuman as baseball gets, went 0-for-14 with four strikeouts against Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw while playing for the Los Angeles Angels.

When Ohtani joined the Dodgers in 2024, fans joked he had moved to Kershaw’s team just to stop facing him. With Kershaw now retired, Ohtani has run into a new nemesis in Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. Sánchez has faced Ohtani 25 times and allowed only four hits, all singles, while striking him out 12 times. In their latest meeting Tuesday, Sánchez held Ohtani hitless in three at-bats and struck him out twice.

Ohtani bats left-handed, so some trouble against left-handed pitching would not be unusual on its own. But his batting average against left-handers this season is .274, not far off his .293 average against right-handers, suggesting Sánchez specifically is the problem.

Sánchez suggested that his edge was no accident.

“Same plan as always,” Sánchez said in a postgame interview after the Phillies’ win over the Dodgers. “I won’t tell you which one it is, but the same plan as always.”

BY BAE YOUNG-EUN [kim.hayoon1@joongang.co.kr]